GirlsWithToys Are Blowing Up Twitter

May 21st, 2015

In case you’ve been out of the loop, there’s a kerfuffle brewing on Twitter right now and it’s getting pretty awesome.

It seems that over the weekend NPR ran one of their usual boring interviews which usually just serve as background noise while you’re doing something else. The interview in question was with Shrinivas Kulkarni, an astronomer who teaches astrophysics at the California Institute of Technology. During the interview he was quoted by NPR as saying, “Many scientists, I think, secretly are what I call ‘boys with toys.” That stupid off-color comment set in motion an epic reaction from women in the science community who took to Twitter to remind everyone that women also play a role in these fields.

Using the hashtag #girlswithtoys, bad ass scientists from around the world shared dozens of images of women “playing” with microscopes, telescopes, Mars rovers, water pumps and more.